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I hope this isn’t so, but Eva Moskowitz. I might leave the city.

Such language from a lady.

And Donald Rumsfeld wasn’t going anywhere in November 2006.

The smoke was billowing forth from my monitor when I prevailed upon it to display the Klein email.

This was the line that caused the screen to crack:
“Mayor Bloomberg’s continuity of leadership has led to historic achievement gains and what I hope is a permanent culture shift—creating a school system that puts the interests of students above all else.”

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?

I’m not sure whether it finished imploding on “…redistribute our teacher talent…” or “…open 100 more charter schools if Albany raises—or lifts altogether—the current cap on their creation.”

As to “And you kept your focus even as our schools and our students’ progress were challenged during the loud debate over mayoral control and then, of course, the long campaign. ” Indeed we have. The letter was strangely silent on the School Progress Reports and the 98% A’s and B’s, which Liebman’s replacement vows will NOT happen on the High School reports… as Kleinberg’s grads trundle off to CUNY Remedialville.

If this letter goes into history as Klein’s “Checkers Speech,” you read it here first.

Were Klein to step aside or be replaced, why should anyone assume the next Chancellor would be an “educator?” After all, look how far we’ve come under a lawyer who holds no teaching or supervisory cerificates.

That leaves the door open to prospective out-of-the-box candidates like Bobby Valentine, a repentent Bernard Kerik (if he is acquitted), Soupy Sales (wait, scratch that one), Paris Hilton, Klein-pal Reverend Al.

Bill Thompson is looking for a job, but he’s over-qualified to be chancellor. Let’s not forget Harold O. Levy (former Chancellor, also uncertified). That’s my short list.

Note: Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott has taken his name out of consideration. He says he’s perfectly happy standing next to the Mayor at press conferences and photo-ops. Being CEO of the school system would be too taxing. Did someone say Ninfa Segarra?

It may take Mayor Bloomberg a while to find someone even worse than Joel Klein, but I’m convinced he can do it if he tries. I have faith.

But then she wouldn’t be able to see Russia from her window.

tske her to Brighton Beach … she wouldn’t know the difference …

Of course the position of Chancellor should be an educator who has some understanding of education. Klein’s inability to see the forrest through the trees has led to quite a few catostrophies in the schools topped off by the ATR problem which is 1000% his creation by closing so many schools; and there is not one iota of evidence that the closing of the schools has led to one bit of improvement in overall education; especially in the high schools. The large high schools for generations served their neighborhoods and provided great education as well as so many other activities that makes a school a school. But be tht as it may, the audacity of this man in telling the world the ATR’s are incompetent because they can’t find a job (when we all know many of his Principals are afraid that their inadequacies will be exposed by experienced teachers and of course there is the budgeting issue) is one of contempt for career educators who have devoted their lives to children; sonmething that cannot be said of Klein.

But it would be very simple for use to make sure the next Chancellor is an educator. All we need is an announcement from SED that they will no longer issue any waivers for the requirement to havethe proper State Certification for the post. And that is not handicapping the mayor as some silly post said. The mayor will simply be forced to select somebody who knows something about education instead of a career Civl Rights lawyer. That should be self evident to anybody who works in the schools.

Queens Parent:

We are more than six years into the Klein regime, and, yes, there are still too many “crappy’ schools, who bears the blame? These are schools with faltering data for years, why hasn’t the Klein regime intervened? And, the closing and creation of small hs is still an experiment. We now know that “Credit Recovery,” is a fraud, if we were to deduct the corrupted credit recovery credits would graduation rates increase?

We are still fumbling to find “answers” to low achieving schools, and, unfortunately parents and teachers are way out of the loop.

The silo structure of the city social service system and the failure of it to interact w1 schools and families is a disgrace.

We need fewer sticks and more carrots, you get a lot more with honey and vinegar.

Anyway, I vote for Bud Selig. He made sure the Yankees got back on top.

Another thorn in the stats of the large high schools is the attendance rate. Several years schools were put on the SURR list based on the attendance rate and graduation rate. Now, it’s called SINI, Corrective measure, etc. How do we measure succeed in a high school? If you have a school where there is actual 85-90% attendance, I’m not talking about coming in only during official attendance period, I mean for the entire day, then there’ a greater chance of high school students succeeding in each subject. Presently, the attendance rate in high schools are based on ONLY one period, the official period or official class period. However the reality is that I have high school students who ONLY come in two or three periods and they cut the rest of the day. Everytime I see a school report cards and it states that a school has 90% period I know that it’s based on that one period and I would like to know the actual attendance rate for the entire day for the entire school year. Unfortunately, there are NOT enough attendance teachers to go out there and do outreach. Teachers call the homes to let parents know about their child’s excessive absences, but the majority of the numbers don’t work. If the number works, the parents don’t know what to do because they send the child to school and there’s only so much they can do. Because of the students’ excessive absences, they become very disruptive in class. They missed so many days of the lesson that they can’t understand the work so they become upset because they feel that they’re entitled to a one-to-one lesson from the teacher. Interestingly, I had a conversation with a parent who was crying hysterically because she doesn’t know what else to do with her child. Then you have those parents who has told me that they don’t care anymore!

So take those factors: poor attendance (come to school 50-60%), students cutting classes (can’t do the work and expect teachers to give them credit recovery work/packages), no parental involvement or apathetic parents, non-working numbers, and you have the making of a crappy high school. Yet, it’s not the staff’s fault at the school. Students can make their schools great or crappy! Teachers want to teach and they want their students to succeed and the schools want to celebrate accomplishsments. But, it’s not happening at the small or restructured high schools. Mind you this is happening at the school where I am at and it’s a small high school with plenty of issues. The staff is already stretched-out thin from trying to help students to reach their goals and get an education. Unfortunately, you reach some but they those fews that bring the school down and exasperate the teachers and bring shame to the parents. When you have students who don’t want to be in school and tell teachers, “Yo, shut the f**k up” because the teachers want them to do their work, then it is time to get a chancellor who truly understand the nature of schools and will create policies, rules, and alternative for those students who need a different learning environment (such as trade schools or CTE schools). As long as we have a chancellor who is clueless to what’s happening in the schools and does not understand the various dynamics and needs that teenagers bring to high schools, then we will end up with more **crappy** high schools.

QP,
Regardless of the number of centuries that passed pre-mayoral control, how is it that after eight years of Bloomberg and Klein at the helm you think another four would make a subtantive difference?

Again, after all, they’ve already given 98% of the schools A’s or B’s (with your blessing, as I recall).

Would fixing “stupid work rules” (aka immediately firing all rubber room and ATR teachers) result in 110% A’s? Hard to see it, when those teachers are not actually IN the classrooms.

I nominate William Howatt, the hypnotherapist, to be the new Chancellor. perhaps he can do a better job hypnotizing parents and the public at large into believe the propaganda spewed out by the DOE that our schools are improving.

Or how about Al Sharpton? Now that he’s off the board of EEP he’s probably looking for a new gig.